As Yin Lian read the page explaining how to use the latent energy, she felt a small rush of excitement from the thrill of becoming stronger, even though she had yet to actually do so.
She sat down in a lotus position as instructed, and focused her mind on finding the latent energy within herself and meditated.
She sat there for a couple of hours before she frustrated at her lack of progress.
In her anger, she screamed it out, "Rrraaaggghh!!!"
"Do you want some guidance?" The Will asked.
Yin Lian stayed silent for a moment before responding grumpily, "Yes…"
"If you're having trouble looking for the latent energy mentioned in the cultivation manual, it may be because of your physique, perhaps you should try looking for some other kind of energy." The Will advised.
Still disgruntled, she does as the Will instructed and looked within herself for a different energy. She searched and searched for even longer than before as she felt that she had to look for whatever it was that she was looking for.
And eventually, she found a minute trace of a mystical force, not an energy, but something beyond that, a constant of reality, a Dao. Although she didn't know what it was at the time, she knew that it was what she had been searching for.
But unfortunately for her, due to the amount of time she spent looking for it, her mind became tired, and couldn't hold onto it for long. Her concentration slipped and her hold on this force disappeared, annoying her.
"Aagghh!!" She screamed in frustration as she lost all of the progress she made in a single second.
"Worry not, Yin Lian, many struggle to start their journey, just like you, and many fail to even begin their journey at such a young age, let alone make such progress as quickly as you have. Be patient, rest for now, you must be quite tired after all that. You can try again later, okay?" The Will suggested.
"Fine." Yin Lian murmured in annoyance.
But despite that, she soon fell asleep atop the throne, using the book as a pillow, which, although not the most comfortable of positions, she still slept comfortably, because she was still a child, and a child could sleep practically anywhere anyway.
As for the Will, it started to sort some things out for the girl that would help her out later.
When Yin Lian later woke up after a few hours of sleep yawning, she caught the smell of something warm and tasty. She sniffed the air and turned back to see some roasted meat on the ground.
Her mouth watered and her stomach growled out, as if demanding her to eat the meat. She gulped down her saliva hungrily as her stomach continued to grumble, demanding her to eat.
She crawled off of the throne she was lying down on and walked over to the roasted meat and began to devour it hungrily.
Within minutes the meat was gone and all that was left was a bone that the meat clung to. When she was done, Yin Lian noticed a glass of water next to her. She was sure that it wasn't there a second ago but was too thirsty to question it.
She then quickly drank it and heard the Will speak to her after she finished.
"How do you feel?"
Yin Lian lowered her head and answered somewhat despondently, "Better."
"Good. Are you ready to try cultivating again?" The Will asked patiently.
Yin Lian went quiet for a second before she confirmed that she was ready to continue. She didn't like doing this. She found it boring and tedious, but somehow, she could tell that she had to this, even if she hated it.
"Good, it should be a lot easier this time, now that you know what you're looking for. Just sit cross legged and concentrate on finding that Dao again."
With a grumble of discontent, the little girl got back into a lotus sitting position and went back to cultivating.
'I hope that water helps her.' The Will thought, as it had put in a tiny modicum of Dao Qi into it. The meat was just regular meat, no Qi in it or anything special, just regular roasted meat.
The Qi was so diluted that not even the oldest and most experienced Gods would be able to detect. But the Will hoped that it was just enough to help the little girl cultivate a little easier.
It took no effort to make the water or the Dao Qi, just a thought and it was made. Specifically of the Yin variant.
All this was done so that she could hasten her journey on the path of the Dao and truly begin cultivating.
And just a few minutes later, Yin Lian finally found the inner energy, and began to pull it out, determined to not let it slip out of her grasp again.
However, she had forgotten what she was supposed to do now that she had it. She was so focused on actually grabbing it that she forgot why she was doing this in the first place.
And the Will could clearly see this struggle happening as her face scrunched up and began to trickle with beads of sweat.
A trace of essence manifested itself from the Will's mind and formed into a little needle. It wasn't a sharp needle that would pierce the girls' clothes or skin, but just prod her skin to help guide her.
"Bring it out and into your body, to the innermost part of an organ within you down here." The Will then poked Yin Lian's Naval, around four centimetres below her bellybutton.
"Don't worry about which one, you'll know as you bring it closer to here." The Will reassured in a soothing tone.
Yin Lian did as instructed and brought the whisp of energy out of wherever it was that she found it and into her body, slowly bringing it down towards her abdomen, and she could feel a resonance between her and the point she was supposed to bring it to.
And soon, she brought it to her womb. She didn't know what this organ was, or even what an organ was for that matter, but she found the point inside her that this energy was supposed to go.
But once again, she was stumped as to what to do next, as she had forgotten basically everything that she was supposed to do form here on out.
But to her fortune, the Will was here to help explain all of this to her in a calm and concise manner. Like a wise old man guiding a junior through the first steps.
"Once you've found the point, you need to slowly grind down these accumulated clots with the energy, which will turn it back into more energy."
Yin Lian continued to do as the Will guided, as it seemed to only want the best for her, and she had no reason to distrust it so far.
That in mind, she began to chip away at the grimy and murky clot, finding that the energy she used to break away at it, returned threefold.
Excited, she tried to break it apart forcefully, but that only sent a twang of pain throughout her system, causing her to lose focus as the energy retreated back into her body.
When the pain resided, the little girl realised that she had lost the essence in her grasp and started to throw a hissy fit, screaming and rolling on the floor as she flailed her limbs around.
She was still a child after all, and the Will knew this, so it just let her get it all out of her system as that would be the best way to deal with this in its current state.
And after several minutes of screaming and kicking the air wildly, the child stopped throwing her tantrum and just laid there on the floor, looking up at the pitch black darkness that seemed to go on for forever.
She was breathing heavily as her chest heaved up and down, her eyes cloudy and unfocused as she felt her body swell with sweat.
As she lay there, the Will decided to speak up and advise her like a wise elder.
"Child, you need to have patience when cultivating. If you progress too fast, then your cultivation will fail you by collapsing in on itself. But go too slow and you won't progress quick enough."
The Wills wise words however, fell on deaf ears, as Yin Lian didn't have the mood to pay attention to anything the Will was saying.
*Sigh* "Just take your time when you're opening your Meridians, okay?" The Will pleaded with an exasperated sigh. "Otherwise, you might explode and die again."
The moment that last sentence came out Yin Lian's head was instantly raised off of the floor upon registering those words.
There was a fear in her eyes, a fear of death, of not wanting to ever go through that again.
Her body shivered as her eyes trembled, finally taking the Will's words to heart.